[362] The Castilian writers generally speak of it as the _peremptory command_ of Philip. Cabrera, one of the best authorities, tells us: "Mandió el Rey Catolico a Don Juan de Austria enplear su armada en la conquista de Tunez, i que le desmantelase, i la Goleta." But soon after he remarks: "Olvidando el _buen acuerdo_ del Rey, por consejo de lisongeros determinó de conservar la ciudad." (Filipe Segundo, pp. 763, 764.) From this qualified language we may infer that the king meant to give his brother his decided opinion, not amounting, however, to such an absolute command as would leave him no power to exercise his discretion in the matter. This last view is made the more probable by the fact that in the following spring a correspondence took place between the king and his brother, in which the former, after stating the arguments both for preserving and for dismantling the fortress of Tunis, concludes by referring the decision of the question to Don John himself. "Representadas todas estas dificultades, manda remitir S. M. al Señor Don Juan que él tome la resolucion que mas convenga."--Documentos Inéditos, tom. iii. p. 139. [363] "Porque la gentileza de la tierra i de las damas en su conservacion agradaba a su gallarda edad."--Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, p. 755.--Also Vanderhammen, Don Juan de Austria, fol. 176. [364] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. x. p. 286.--Vanderhammen, Don Juan de Austria, fol. 178. [365] Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 116 et seq.--Relacion particular de Don Juan Sanogera, MS. Vanderhammen states the loss of the Moslems at thirty-three thousand slain. (Don Juan de Austria, fol. 189.) But the arithmetic of the Castilian is little to be trusted as regards the infidel. [366] For a brief but very perspicuous view of the troubles of Genoa, see San Migual, Hist. de Flipe Segundo (tom. ii. cap. 36). The care of this judicious writer to acquaint the reader with contemporary events in other countries, as they bore more or less directly on Spain, is a characteristic merit of his history. [367] Torres y Aguilera, Chronica, fol. 113. [368] The principal cause of Granvelle's coldness to Don John, as we are told by Cabrera (Filipe Segundo, p. 794), echoed, as usual, by Vanderhammen (Don Juan de Austria, fol. 184), was envy of the fame which the hero of Lepanto had gained by his conquests both in love and in war. "La causa principal era el poco gasto que tenia de acudir á Don Juan, invidioso de sus favores de Marte i Venus." Considering the cardinal's profession, he would seem to have had no right to envy any one's success in either of these fields. [369] "Questa oppinione, che di lui si hà, rende le sue leggi più sacrosancte et inviolabili."--Relazione di Contarini, MS. [370] A manuscript, entitled "_Origen de los Consejos_," without date or the name of the author, in the library of Sir Thomas Phillips, gives a minute account of the various councils under Philip the Second.